Sector/Thematic Studies

6,525 items available

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2110

Economic and Sectoral Work are original analytic reports authored by the World Bank and intended to influence programs and policy in client countries. They convey Bank-endorsed recommendations and represent the formal opinion of a World Bank unit on the topic. This set includes the sectoral and thematic studies which are not Core Diagnostic Studies. Other analytic and advisory activities (AAA), including technical assistance studies, are included in these sectoral/thematic collections.

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Equitable Growth, Finance & Institutions Insight

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A Blue Transformation for Pacific Maritime Transport: Overarching Regional Transport

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-05-31) World Bank

This report has eight chapters. Following the introduction (Pacific Peoples and the Sea), the next six chapters each focus on a separate significant component of Pacific maritime transport, analyzing the major influences and challenges, and, where relevant, key areas for future attention. The topics are: international shipping, gateway ports, domestic maritime transport, four related sectors, cruise ship tourism, tuna fisheries, fossil fuel imports, and bulk shipping, natural disasters and climate resilience, and sector governance and institutions. The final chapter, transforming pacific maritime transport, ways forward, distils the report’s findings into the most significant and far-reaching opportunities to transform maritime transport in the Pacific. These are grouped into three broad themes, infrastructure, services, and governance and capacity building. Ways Forward comes at the end and, for readers unable to view the whole report, is a good place to begin. The rest of this executive summary explains why the Pacific is a special case for investment and provides a summary of the main chapters and findings. But first, it describes which Pacific Island countries contributed to the study.
Shaping First Steps: A Comprehensive Review of Preschool Education in Malaysia

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-05-31) World Bank

The potential benefits from supporting early childhood development range from healthy development to a greater capacity to learn and increased productivity in adulthood. Despite undertaking various preschool education reforms and initiatives, issues of access and quality remain and continue to grow. The Malaysia Education Blueprint (2013-2025) set a target to achieve universal preschool enrollment by 2020, and Malaysia, along with many other developing countries, has yet to achieve this. Findings from the World Bank’s preschool survey and stakeholder interviews carried out for this report point to a range of issues, such as a lack of preschool seat availability in certain areas, low awareness among parents on the benefits of sending their children to preschools, affordability of preschool expenses, low teacher quality, and concerns over the overlapping roles between the multiple ministries and agencies that oversee ECCE in Malaysia. This review is carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and is a comprehensive assessment of Malaysia’s current preschool education landscape. The review aims to identify the gaps between the targets and aspirations set by MOE and the government under various policy documents and the outcomes to date. It also aims to deep-dive into the underlying reasons for these gaps, and seek solutions to close them and achieve the aspirations. This report synthesizes the findings from research, analysis, and stakeholder engagement activities, and is organized by a framework of targets, pillars, and enablers.
Tools and Resources for Nature-Based Tourism - Second Edition

(Washington, DC, 2023-05-30) World Bank

Nature-based tourism (NBT) plays an important role in sustainable development. It can support poverty alleviation, economic growth, and biodiversity conservation and contribute to key global agreements and frameworks, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. NBT’s singular potential to create jobs and growth, while protecting wildlife and ecosystems, makes it an enticing prospect for developing countries seeking to align those interests. The World Bank commissioned a comprehensive review of the tools and knowledge resources that could be used by practitioners in the field of NBT, to prepare and implement projects that promote sustainable NBT practices and policies. Impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic have reverberated across the tourism sector since first publication of this report in July 2020. Those working in nature-based tourism, from tour operators to community organizations to protected area authorities, have faced particular challenges – and opportunities – as tourism revenues plummeted and slowly rebound. This second edition in 2022 aims to collect and share the many resources that have emerged to support nature-based tourism destinations and stakeholders to recover and reset in the face of the pandemic, including a new chapter on COVID-19 resources.
Lebanon Economic Monitor - Spring 2023: The Normalization of Crisis Is No Road for Stabilization : Executive Summary

( 2023-05-15) World Bank

Lebanon’s long economic contraction continued in 2022, albeit at a slower pace than in previous years. The deceleration in economic contraction in 2022 is largely owed to a base effect (referred to as a technical deceleration in economic contraction).Following a cumulative four-year contraction of 37.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (2018–2021), real GDP is estimated to have declined by 2.6 percent in 2022. The BLOM-PMI index (purchasing manager's index), which captures private sector activity, slightly improved to 48.4 in 2022, up from an average of 46 percent in 2021 but nonetheless still representing a contraction of activity (<50). A positive development is the growth in tourist arrivals (by 57 percent, 8M-2022). Nonetheless, the widening current account deficit, a long structural imbalance, continue to weigh down on growth prospects. The overall fiscal balance is estimated to have recorded a narrow surplus of 0.3 percent of GDP in 2022, down from 1 percent of GDP 2021. Revenues are estimated to have declined from an already low 13.1 percent of GDP in 2020 to 6.0 percent of GDP in 2022, one of the lowest rates globally. This was more than offset by a larger decrease in total expenditures, which declined from 16.4 percent of GDP in 2020 to a record low of 5.7 percent of GDP in 2022, pointing to a massive hollowing out of the state amid an unprecedented crisis. Testament to the lack of economic stabilization, the Lebanese Pound (LBP) continues to depreciate sharply. By February 2023, the currency lost more than 98 percent of its pre-crisis value. Despite the central bank (Banque du Liban's) (BdL)’s foreign exchange (FX) interventions to attempt to stabilize the BNR (i.e., the banknote rate/parallel market) using its gross reserves starting in December 2021, the BNR averaged 31,102 LBP/US$ in 2022.
Options for Reducing Plastic Leakage to the Marine Environment from Capture Fisheries and Aquaculture

(Washington, DC, 2023-05-10) World Bank

The Government of Indonesia’s (GoI) National Plan of Action on Marine Plastic Debris (NPOA-MPD 2017-2025) outlines the ambitious objective of reducing marine plastic debris by seventy percent by 2025. Abandoned, Lost and Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG) is a major component of sea-based sources of marine debris, and is another important sea-based source of plastic leakage. The cultivation of marine and aquatic species, including seaweed, uses plastic components such as buoys, ropes, harvest bins and feed sacks. The primary pathways for plastic leakage from aquaculture include mismanagement, deliberate discharge, extreme weather and catastrophic events such as tsunamis. The impacts of fishery and aquaculture plastic pollution on the environment, economy, livelihoods and food security are significant. The scale of these impacts on fisheries, marine ecosystems and human users has prompted international action. Managing and mitigating plastic pollution from fisheries and aquaculture has the potential to contribute to Indonesia’s marine plastic debris targets while also providing economic opportunities. This report presents options for reducing ALDFG and ALDAG in Indonesia, and improving the management and use of End-of-life fishing gear (EOLFG).
Management, Retrieval and Recycling of End-of-Life and Abandoned, Lost and Discarded Fishing Gear: The Evidence Base from Capture Fisheries

(Washington, DC, 2023-05-10) World Bank

The Government of Indonesia’s (GoI) National Plan of Action on Marine Plastic Debris (NPOA-MPD 2017-2025) outlines the ambitious objective to reduce marine plastic debris by seventy percent by 2025. Abandoned, Lost and Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG) is considered to be a major component of sea-based sources of marine debris. ALDFG has increased in recent decades due to the expansion of fishing effort and greater use of synthetic fishing gear materials. Drivers of ALDFG generation include gear characteristics, fishery management frameworks and socioeconomic factors. The impacts of ALDFG on the environment, economy, livelihoods and food security are significant. ALDFG management and mitigation strategies have the potential to contribute to Indonesia’s marine plastic debris while also providing economic opportunities. This study aims to enhance the evidence available to support efforts to improve the management, retrieval and recycling of End-of-life fishing gear (EOLFG) and ALDFG in Indonesia.
Unlocking Women’s and Girls’ Potential: The status of women and girls relative to men and boys in Guinea

(Washington, DC, 2023-05-10) World Bank

Evidence shows that Guinean women and girls face important barriers across all dimensions of well-being that prevent them from having access to opportunities on an equal footing with men. The poor agency of women and girls, as reflected in the high prevalence of discriminatory legal and social norms, translates into gaps in health, education, employment, and entrepreneurship, ultimately undermining their capacity to fulfill their potential and imposing important societal costs. This report presents a summary of the key challenges facing Guinean women and girls relative to men and boys. The report has a particular focus on early family formation, a common phenomenon in the country with important implications for girls’ and women’s well-being and opportunities in life. On the basis of this diagnostic and a review of evidence of what works, the report proposes some strategic lines of action to address the existing constraints and effectively empower Guinean women.
The Future of Pacific Tourism

(Washington DC, 2023-04-25) World Bank

Over the two decades preceding the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, tourism became one of the most important drivers of economic growth across the Pacific. The COVID-19 crisis had a devastating impact on tourism activity in the Pacific, with severe and potentially durable economic and social consequences. This study takes a fresh look at tourism’s role for development in the Pacific, its future after COVID-19, and the scope to foster a greener, more resilient, competitive, and inclusive sector. It complements and builds on the 2016 Pacific possible report, which assessed specific opportunities to increase arrivals in a context of rapid tourism growth, by considering the changes to the industry’s model that could maximize tourism’s economic, social, and environmental benefits for Pacific Islanders. It does this by: (i) taking stock of the evidence on tourism’s historical contribution to development in the Pacific Island Country (PICs) and of the COVID-19 crisis’ impacts, (ii) analyzing current obstacles and potential opportunities for a more competitive and sustainable Pacific tourism, focusing on selected issues key to target higher value markets, and (iii) recommending policy priorities and investment needs to (re)position the Pacific tourism model for the future and broaden its benefits, focusing on competitiveness, environmental sustainability, resilience and inclusiveness. Given the scarcity of data on Pacific tourism and frequent discrepancies across sources, one of the study’s main contributions is to provide a detailed quantitative assessment of the sector and its economic impacts, for instance on jobs, poverty, and public revenue, based on an extensive data collection, cross-checking and integration exercise.
Environment and Natural Resources Supplementary Guidance Note for Risk and Resilience Assessments

(Washington DC, 2023-04-20) World Bank

This supplementary guidance note is based on the report, Defueling Conflict: Environment and Natural Resource Management as a Pathway to Peace (2022), which was funded by the State and Peacebuilding Fund. This document is intended to encapsulate the key ideas to support Risk and Resilience Assessment (RRA) teams to collect knowledge on and deepen and nuance the treatment of the environment and natural resources in RRAs. Additional examples and analyses are available in the original report.
Scaling Up to Phase Down: Financing Energy Transitions in the Power Sector

(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-04-20) World Bank

The Scaling Up to Phase Down approach is a contribution by the World Bank to the ongoing debate on how to accelerate energy transition in low- and middle-income countries (LICs and MICs)—as called for by the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change—while simultaneously widening access to the reliable and affordable energy that underpins countries’ development goals. The approach is intended to be a bridge between the challenges facing World Bank clients who are seeking to transition their power sectors and the development partners supporting their efforts. The energy transition is the process of shifting the global energy system away from the consumption of fossil fuels and toward low-carbon technologies in order to support international goals of limiting climate change. In the next decade, much of this transition will first occur in the power sector because solutions using newer technologies have the potential to become cost competitive with appropriate interventions, and also because the power sector is a powerful pathway for decarbonizing other sectors—most notably transport, buildings, and industry. The power sector is therefore the focus of this report. The power sector transition will advance energy efficiency and decarbonize the energy supply by expanding renewable energy and strengthening electricity networks in order to integrate renewable energy, demand-side management, and end-use electrification. In LICs and MICs, this transition aims to meet the rapidly growing demand for energy in a way that supports inclusive development consistent with net-zero global emissions by mid-century, and builds resilience to the changing climate. A just transition in the power sector should address the needs of workers and communities who are affected by the shift away from fossil fuels; provide modern energy access to millions of people; and protect vulnerable customers from unaffordable energy prices. For the first time, the World Bank has outlined a vision for how the international community can support LICs and MICs to overcome critical barriers that are paralyzing the power sector transition. Drawing on findings of the first set of Country Climate and Development Reports produced by the World Bank, and decades of engagement with energy sector development, this approach distills understanding of the unique challenges that LICs and MICs face in undertaking this transition at the scale and pace required to meet their development and climate needs. The approach may help both World Bank clients and development partners in preparing a roadmap to catalyze and sustain a virtuous cycle that unleashes urgently needed investment in power sector transition. Chapter 1 explains that the capital-intensive nature of clean energy investments, combined with the lack of access to affordable capital, have a disproportionate and distorting effect on the power sector transitions of LICs and MICs. Even where renewable energy has the potential to provide a more affordable energy supply and improve energy security and health, the up-front capital costs that must be borne leave LICs and MICs locked into using costly fossil fuels. Chapter 2 discusses additional barriers to the scaling up of clean energy and the concomitant phasing down of coal. The commitment of governments will be essential in order to foster the policies, regulations, and institutions needed to prepare a pipeline of projects that can attract private capital. This chapter argues that concessional finance is essential in order to overcome the barriers to investments of private capital at the necessary levels. Chapter 3 discusses how public and concessional support must be deployed with a disciplined approach in order to scale up clean energy and energy efficiency. Chapter 4 explains the need to phase down the use of unabated coal, and the instruments to do so in a manner that manages losses and protects the most vulnerable. Chapter 5 concludes the paper with a discussion of how larger and sustained volumes of concessional capital could be more effectively structured within country-based programmatic approaches and technology demonstration partnerships in order to scale up the financial resources and political momentum for transitioning the power sector.